I just needed to get some steam off... I work with a number of sub-contratcors for different projects: programming, web design, SEO etc...Most of the time it works very well, but sometimes... There is always at least 1 that only delivers partial or sub-par work and wants full payment anyway. They promise to do better next time. Now I am not out any money, becuse I only pay full in advance for those that have a good track record with me. But it still drives me nuts! It usually goes something like: Details of work and payment are agreed upon A partial down payment is made Work is delivered for review Upon review, work is not complete I inform sub-contractor of missing elements Sub-contractor asks for full payment anyway, and promisses to do better next time. Says he should be paid because he tried. I ask for completed work beofre making additonal payment Sub-contractor ask for full payment and promisses to do better next time Repeat last 2 items n-times until I give up and stop responding to them This issue always comes up for me with sub-contratcors from a specific country. Why do they think that I would pay for anything less then full completion of our agreement/contract?
Choose better contractors. I am a service provider and my main problem is that the customers do not write proper decumentation for the project. And after I complete the work they say : "This is not what I have asked for!" And then I have to rewrite tons of things.. The thing goes both way, there are bad sub-contractors but there are bad clients that can not properly manage the work they ask for. During the last 7 years of project managing I concluded that to outsource things is in fact harder from the management point of view than to do it inhouse. And if you want to outsource large projects then you must know how to make those projects inhouse. Otherwise you are going just to waste money and time... Egomancer
I agree, that happens quite a bit. But in my case, what I come across is "Sub-contractor asks for full payment anyway, and promisses to do better next time. Says he should be paid because he tried." So that is the sub-contractor not doing what was written/agreed but wants payment anyway.
Unfortunately it all comes with the online territory. They know that you can't practically hold them as responsible as you would a real employee, and they know that they have decent protection from the anonymous nature of the internet. Just provide good documentation and hold them accountable for their work. I don't understand why so many contractor's assume that just because they are freelancing they aren't held to the same standard as a professional employee. Good luck with working it out though.
I've experienced the same type of shoddy workmanship, and I think it's partially due to people thinking they can make "easy money" working online as opposed to keeping a regular j-o-b. While it's definitely "easy" to earn a living online nowadays, that's no excuse for not giving a job your full effort. In fact, if you want repeat customers it's mandatory to do your absolute best. I guess some people just don't want to work that hard - or they don't have the skill/talent to do a great job, which is why they probably try to work for themselves - no employer wants them either! Sounds harsh, but in many cases it's true.
I had the same problem with a couple of people here at DP. Its really annoying. Like this DP guy hillord, supposed to recode a site, agreed on a price, then he took a look at the site and wanted to double the price and in the end he could not even make the site similar. This kind of stuff is very annoying. Same with some coders, often they are not so skilled as they give the impression of.